I'm used to stratas being savoury dishes. Layers of bread, maybe some sausage and/or veggies, probably cheese, and then eggs or custard to bind it all together. Baked up into a tasty breakfast dish.

This one is a bit different. It's a sweet strata! Basically a layered bread pudding. Full of apples, raisins, spices, and a lightly sweetened custard. And served with maple syrup. Rather than cheddar or mozzarella (as I might normally expect for a strata), it uses cream cheese.

I think, on the whole, I prefer my savoury stratas. But this was definitely a nice way to mix things up a bit. And the Kidlet loved it!

Apple Strata

Slightly adapted from The Big Book of Breakfast by Maryana Vollstedt

Ingredients

• 6 slices stale bread, cubed and divided
• 125g cream cheese, cubed
• 2 apples, peeled and diced
• 1/2 c. raisins
• 6 large eggs
• 1 1/4 c. milk
• 1 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp. ground cloves

Directions

1. Grease a 23x23cm (9x9") square pan.
2. Place half of the bread cubes in an even layer in the bottom of the pan.
3. Scatter the cream cheese on top.
4. Layer the apples on top of this and sprinkle with the raisins.
5. Beat the eggs with the milk and mix in the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
6. Pour the custard over the strata.
7. Cover and set aside to allow the bread to soak up the custard for at least an hour and as long as overnight. (Store in the fridge if there will be more than 2 hours between assembly and baking.)
8. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F)¹.
10. Bake strata at 180°C (350°F) until custard is just set (60-75 minutes).
11. Serve topped with icing sugar and/or maple syrup.

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¹ The original recipe says to bake your strata at 190°C (375°F) for 55 minutes. Mine was very dark on top after only 45, but still raw in the centre. I ended up covering it with foil and baking it for another 10 minutes and then reducing the temperature to 180°C (350°F) and baking it 10 more minutes. So, I think next time I'd just start it out at 180°C (350°F) and bake it for a bit longer to make sure that everything gets cooked through without burning. ^Back

This is meant to be made with fresh Chinese-style egg noodles. I didn't feel like making a special trip out to the shop though, so we just used dry spaghettini. It worked just fine and was delicious.

I also didn't bother trying to cook the chicken in a grill pan like the recipe called for. I just cooked it in a normal frying pan. No pretty grill marks on it that way. But it seemed just fine otherwise.

For the vegetables... It was meant to use edamame and carrots. I don't particularly like edamame, so I used frozen green peas instead. Honestly, I think it would've been good with even more veg. It was good as-is. But I might be tempted to add some thinly sliced bell pepper next time.

Sesame Noodles with Chicken

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 2 Tbsp. sesame oil
• 1/4 c. light soy sauce
• 1/4 c. rice vinegar
• 3 Tbsp. orange juice
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. garlic paste
• 1 tsp. Sriracha
• 2 skinless boneless chicken breasts
• pepper, to taste
• 1 c. frozen peas
• 300g dry spaghettini (or similar)
• 1 bell pepper, thinly sliced (optional)
• 2-3 carrots, grated
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 2 Tbsp. toasted sesame seeds

Directions

1. Combine the oils, soy sauce, vinegar, juice, sugar, garlic, and Sriracha and mix well.
2. Season the chicken breasts with pepper and brush with 2 Tbsp. of the sauce.
3. Heat a pan over medium heat and add the chicken. Cook until no longer pink inside (5-6 minutes per side).
4. Remove from pan and slice.
5. Meanwhile, place the frozen peas in a colander.
6. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt lightly, and add the pasta, cooking until al dente.
7. Drain the pasta by pouring it into the colander with the peas.
8. Toss the noodles and peas with the bell pepper (if using), carrots, chicken, remaining sauce, and green onions.
9. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve.

I didn't quite do this recipe to spec. It's very simple. You're meant to cut the topknots off of a few individual brioches, hollow out the larger bottom parts, butter both, and then bake eggs in the bases. They're seasoned with a little tarragon and parsley. But there's not much to them other than that.

So how, with a recipe so simple, could I have deviated? Well... I still had about half of this lovely poppyseed bubble loaf left. And some of the centre bits were ever so slightly underbaked. So it occurred to me that this might be the ideal way to use them! Hollow them out, fill them with eggs, and bake them again. Which is great, except the "bubbles" are all a bit smaller and much more awkwardly and irregularly shaped than a traditional brioche. So the eggs didn't really fit neatly into them. I did my best. But it still got a bit messy.

Eggs Baked in Brioche

Slightly adapted from The Big Book of Breakfast by Maryana Vollstedt

Ingredients

• 4 individual brioches
• 1-2 Tbsp. butter, melted
• 4 large eggs
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/2 tsp. dried tarragon
• 4 tsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and butter 4 custard cups or ramekins.
2. Cut the topknots off the brioches and set them aside.
3. Hollow out the brioche bases and butter them.
4. Crack and egg into each brioche base.
5. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, tarragon, and parsley.
6. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 10 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, butter the topknots, wrap in foil, and set aside.
8. Once the eggs have been in the oven for 10 minutes, add the foil packet with the topknots and continue baking for another 10 minutes.
9. Remove from oven and serve.

This was pretty tasty! Definitely not health food. But a nice treat. Especially on the first day. (I do think it loses something in the reheating. It's still good. Just not as good.)

Marry Me Shrimp Pasta

Slightly adapted from Delish.com

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. sun-dried tomato oil¹
• 450g shrimp, shelled and deveined
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 450g dry pasta (rigatoni, shells, or penne all work well)
• 4-5 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1 c. sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
• 2 c. chicken stock
• 1 c. heavy (35%) cream or half-and-half (10% MF)
• 1 tsp. Italian seasoning²
• 300g spinach
• 1/2 c. grated Parmesan
• fresh basil, to serve (optional)

Directions

1. Heat the oil over medium-high heat.
2. Add the shrimp, season with salt and pepper, and cook until pink and opaque (3-5 minutes).
3. Remove shrimp from pan and set aside.
4. Meanwhile, boil the pasta according to package directions. Drain, reserving ~1/2 c. of pasta water, and set aside.
5. Reduce pan temperature to medium.
6. Add garlic, tomato paste, and red pepper flakes and cook until paste darkens (1-2 minutes).
7. Add sun-dried tomatoes, broth, cream, and Italian seasoning, deglaze the pan, and bring to a simmer.
8. Cook until the sauce thickens slightly (~5 minutes).
9. Add spinach and cook until wilted (1-2 minutes).
10. Add pasta, shrimp, and reserved pasta water, stir vigorously for a few seconds, and cook until pasta is well-coated and sauce is glossy.
11. Stir in Parmesan.
12. Season to taste with additional salt and pepper.
13. Sprinkle with fresh basil (if using) and server.

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¹ My tomatoes were not oil-packed, so I didn't have any tomato oil for my sauce. Instead I used a bit of oil from some spicy, oil-packed anchovies. I feel like this was an acceptable substitute. ^Back
2 I didn't have any ready-made Italian seasoning, so I just mixed in a few herbs separately: mostly parsley, oregano, and basil with just a touch of rosemary and thyme. ^Back

I needed a vegetable to go with my chicken stir-fry the other day and bok choy was on sale at the grocery store. The fact that this is an incredibly simple recipe didn't hurt either!

Bok Choy with Lemon and Soy

Slightly adapted from Vegetable of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. sesame oil
• 1kg baby bok choy, thoroughly rinsed and quartered
• 3 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. dark soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. honey
• juice of 1 lemon

Directions

1. Heat the oil over medium heat.
2. Add the bok choy and stir-fry for a minute or so.
3. Add the soy sauces, honey, and lemon and stir-fry until bok choy is wilted and glazed with sauce.

These waffles are... weird. The batter uses an unusal ordering of ingredients. The flavour profile of the salsa is bizarre. And the overall effect, while not bad, is quite unusual.

Hawaiian Waffles with Tropical Salsa

Slightly adapted from The Big Book of Breakfast by Maryana Vollstedt

Ingredients

Salsa

• 1 c. diced mango
• 1 c. diced pineapple
• 1/2 c. chopped bell pepper
• 1 jalape&ntile;o, seeded and minced
• 2 green onions, minced
• juice of 1 lime
• 2 tsp. red wine vinegar
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 Tbsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

Waffles

• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 c. butter, melted
• 1 3/4 c. milk
• 275g flour
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 4 tsp. baking powder, sifted
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/2 c. chopped macadamia nuts
• 1/2 c. unsweetened coconut

Directions

1. Combine all of the salsa ingredients, stir, and chill for 1-2 hours.
2. Preheat waffle iron.
3. Beat the eggs until foamy.
4. Drizzle in the butter and continue beating.
5. Mix in the milk.
6. Add the flour, sugar, and salt and stir to combine.
7. Stir on the nuts and coconut.
8. Scoop a portion of batter into the preheated waffle iron and cook according to manufacturer directions.
9. Repeat with remaining batter.
10. Serve topped with maple syrup and/or tropical salsa.

I've been meaning to make this one for a while now. It can be done as either a "bubble loaf" with little round balls of dough coated in poppyseeds or "money bread" with flat ribbons of dough coated in brown sugar and currants. I opted for the savoury poppyseed variety.

The recipe specifies using 2 cups of butter for coating the dough pieces. This is clearly insane. I melted 1 stick (ie. 1/2 a cup) and still had about half of it left over by the time I was done. Two cups would've been ludicrous!

Otherwise, I pretty much followed the recipe. Although I did toss in ~250g of sourdough discard. Not because the recipe needed it, but because the starter desperately needed to be fed. And, to be honest, the starter does act as a decent conditioner that makes the dough a bit nicer and the finished bread a bit more resistant to going stale, so... why not?

And, while I kept the rest of the ingredients the same, I did slightly change the way that I handled some of them. Most notably, I omitted the butter until I was about halfway through kneading the dough and then worked it in. My understanding is that, although it doesn't necessarily make a huge difference, this can often help with gluten formation.

Poppyseed Bubble Loaf

Slightly adapted from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads

Ingredients

• 800-900g hard (strong/high grade/bread) flour, divided
• 2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast
• 250g sourdough discard (optional)
• 2 c. water
• 2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 2/3 c. dry milk powder
• 6-8 Tbsp. butter, divided
• 1/3 c. poppyseeds

Directions

1. Combine the yeast with 400g of the flour.
2. Add the sourdough discard (if using) and the water and stir to combine.
3. Add the salt, sugar, and milk powder and mix vigorously for ~150 strokes.
4. Add 400g of the remaining flour ~50g at a time.
5. Turn the dough out and knead for 5-10 minutes, using the remaining flour to dust as needed to achieve a soft, supple dough that does not stick too much.
6. Smear 2 Tbsp. of the butter on the work surface and work the dough on top of it for another 5-10 minutes, grandually working the butter into the dough.
7. Knead until dough is smooth and elastic. Small bubbles forming just below the surface is an excellent sign!
8. Round the dough and place it in a covered bowl to rise at room temperature.
9. Once dough is fully risen (~1 hour), knock it back.¹
10. Melt the remaining butter and use some of it to grease a large (10-cup) Bundt pan.
11. Place the poppyseeds in a shallow dish.
12. Pinch off a small portion of dough, shape it into a ball, dip it in the melted butter, and then dip it in the poppyseeds. Place the ball seed-side-up in the prepared pan.
13. Repeat with remaining dough.
14. Cover and let rise for 30-45 minutes.
15. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
16. Bake at 180°C (350°F) until done.²

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Variations

Monkey Bread

Ingredients

• 800-900g hard (strong/high grade/bread) flour, divided
• 2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast
• 250g sourdough discard (optional)
• 2 c. water
• 2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 2/3 c. dry milk powder
• 6-8 Tbsp. butter, divided
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 c. currants, soaked and drained

Directions

1. Make the dough as directed above.
2. Once ready for shaping, press or roll the dough into a large, flat rectangle and cut into ribbons ~2cm wide and 8cm long.
3. Mix the brown sugar and the currants into the melted butter.
4. Dip the dough ribbons into the butter mixture and toss into the pan. (Clayton says to do this "haphazardly", but I think that trying to make a nice pattern with them would be pretty.)

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¹ At this point, you're meant to begin shaping the loaf. I had errands to run, however, so I asked TF to knock the dough back at the 1-mark and then put it back in its bowl to complete a second rise there. After an additional hour, I knocked it back a second time and then shaped the loaf. So the final proof was actually it's third rise, rather than the second as called for in the original recipe. Doing it this way certainly doesn't seem to have hurt the results any! So, feel free to adjust the rises to suit your schedule. Putting it in the fridge to retard it somewhat could also be an option. Bread is really quite flexible! Figure out a method that works for you. ^Back
2 This can be a little tricky to judge with this loaf. Clayton actually says to bake it at 190°C (375°F) for 1 hour. I thought that sounded excessive. Especially for how well-risen the loaf was. I also worried that the slightly higher oven temperature would cause it to burn on the outside before it had baked through in the centre. So I lowered the temperature to 180°C (350°F) and baked it for just 30 minutes. The top pieces were certainly wonderfully browned and beautifully baked. Hopefully it ended up fully cooked in the centre as well. I will admit, I did not end up testing it as I was a little distracted by the time it was going in the oven. ^Back